Venezuela says oil output recovery by end of 2018 will be 'a challenge'

VIENNA (Reuters) - Venezuela has the ability to boost crude output by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) by end of the year in its bid to recover lost production, although the oil minister also said on Friday this goal would be "a challenge" for state oil firm PDVSA.

"We hope that by year-end, we will have recovered the lost production, we have the capacity to do so, we've said so," Manuel Quevedo told reporters at a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna.

President Nicolas Maduro said last month PDVSA would seek to boost oil production by 1 million bpd this year, and would seek help from Russia, China and OPEC if needed. Output has plummeted under U.S. sanctions and due to an economic crisis.

"This is a goal for 2018 that is very challenging for PDVSA ... but it's the goal we've set ourselves," Quevedo said.

The minister earlier said Venezuela was pumping about 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil. The country had been producing about 2.373 million bpd as recently as 2016, Thomson Reuters data shows.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Writing by Amanda Cooper#; Editing by Edmund Blair)